Left-Handed Presidents

In middle school I was taught that in order to be president of the United States, you had to be native-born and at least 35 years of age. My teachers left out the requirement that you be left handed. While not formally a requirement, lately being a lefty has been pretty helpful for becoming president: five of the last seven presidents have been left handed.

Ten to 15 percent of men are left handed, which means, according to my calculations, that this many recent left-handed presidents would only happen by chance one time in 1,000. Adding to the mystery, a number of the losing candidates in recent elections (including John McCain and Ross Perot) have also been southpaws.

My son Nicholas is left handed. For that reason alone, I’ve tried to get him interested in baseball, to no avail. I’ve also heard that lefties are often good at math and art. Those two talents seem to have passed him by as well.

I had resigned myself to the fact that left-handedness would be nothing but a burden for him. I’m cheered by the news regarding presidents

I did a quick search and couldn’t find any systematic evidence that lefties were more likely to be found in leadership positions more generally. Sure, some historic figures like Napoleon are supposed to have been left handed, but there have been a lot of historic figures. Does anyone know whether lefties are overrepresented among C.E.O.’s or world leaders outside the United States?

Nancy – as a left hander, it really is just a trivial handicap, and nothing really to have to overcome. Sure, our arms get tired in school when we have to write on those right-handed desks (I was amazed when I actually found a left-handed desk how nice it was – I didn’t know what I was missing), and we smear our ink as we write (but who writes anymore, and typing is mostly symmetric). But it’s not that big of a deal being left handed, and if mean I can become president (yeah, yeah, that whole correlation vs causality thing), then I’m happy.

Lefties are also known to be wonderfully sympathetic and excellent communicators. The world is not such a tough place for lefties, I hope your son doesn’t really disappoint you with his left handed-ness.

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